Substack loses major newsletter platform program over Nazi content

A top newsletter at Substack is leaving the platform amid controversy over the company's policies on pro-Nazi content. Platformer founder Casey Newton did the announcement on Thursday, writing that the publication “can no longer remain sane.”

The decision follows weeks of controversy over the issue. In December, Jonathan M. Katz published an article on The Atlantic titled “Substack has a Nazi Problem” and reported that 16 newsletters contained “obvious Nazi symbols, including the swastika and sonnenrad, in their logos or prominent graphics.” Katz's report also found that Substack not only hosted writers who openly published Nazi rhetoric, but also profited from some of them.

Later that month, more than 200 Substack authors, including Newton, wrote a I open a letter to Substack's founders asking the company to explain its stance. In response, Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie defended the company's policy. “I just want to make it clear that we don't like Nazis either — we wish no one had those views,” McKenzie wrote, adding, “We don't think censorship (including delegitimizing posts) makes the problem go away — in fact , makes it worse.”

Following Substack's backlash over its initial refusal to remove accounts that support Nazi ideology, the platform said it would remove some Nazi-supporting posts.

In Thursday's announcement, Newton wrote that he and colleagues Zoë Schiffer and Lindsey Choo had previously identified seven Substack publications “that conveyed explicit support for 1930s Nazi Germany and called for violence against Jews, among other groups.” and that Substack removed one before the list was sent. Ultimately, the platform disbanded the remaining five.

After Newton wrote about Substack's decision to remove the five publications, he said he faced criticism from some readers for making a “fuss” about the platform “hosting a handful of little Nazi publications.” Others, he said, denounced what they saw as “celebrating and validating Substack's removal of these same releases.”

In retrospect, Newton regretted his words: “I should have said 'Substack did the basic thing we asked of it' and then pointed out that it didn't address our biggest concerns.”

Before removing Platformer from Substack, Newton said he reached out to readers for input and that the community raised objections to Substack's handling of the controversy. “You pointed out that Substack had not changed its policy. that it did not expressly commit to removing pro-Nazi material; that it appeared to ask its own publications to act as permanent volunteer coordinators. and that in the meantime all hate speech on the platform remains eligible for promotion in Notes, the weekly email review, and other algorithmically ranked surfaces,” Newton wrote.

On Monday, Platformer is set to switch to Ghost, a non-profit open source publishing platform. Newton said Ghost founder and CEO John O'Nolan “has committed to us that Ghost's hosted service will remove pro-Nazi content.”

“Ghost tells us it has no plans to build the recommendation infrastructure that Substack has. It does not seek to be a social network. Rather, it seeks only to create good, stable infrastructure for Internet business,” Newton wrote, providing insight into the Platformer's exit. “This means that even if the Nazis were able to set up shop here, they would be denied access to the development infrastructure that Substack provides. Among other benefits, this means that there is nowhere in Ghost where their content will appear next to the Platformer.”